Arizona school board meetings have been seeing an unprecedented number of disruptions by far-right, angry and yelling crowds furious that students were required to wear facemasks in schools, many organized by outside groups led by Steven Tyler Daniels, a self-identified conservative “patriot” activist who is trying to launch a new fringe-right political party.... Read more»
As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Ducey could choose a tone for his party that embraces the benefits of immigration and the modernization of a broken system or one focused on scare tactics and discord, dooming any effort to reform the system.... Read more»
Red for Ed, the teachers group that spearheaded Proposition 208 – which increases some taxes to hire teachers and bolster teacher salaries – this week returned to the political battlefield to fight a bill it says undermines the will of Arizona voters in November. E... Read more»
A new report found that Arizona ranked 50th in median annual earnings for teachers after adjusting for cost of living. Arizona teachers earned only $47,606 — more than $2,100 less than the adjusted pay for educators in Oklahoma. Arizona’s two largest metropolitan areas, Phoenix and Tucson, ranked 48th and 50th, respectively, among large cities.... Read more»
Arizona schools started this academic year with 21% of all teaching positions vacant, and nearly half of the teachers who were on the payroll did not meet the state’s certification standards.... Read more»
New Census Bureau figures show that per-pupil spending in Arizona’s public schools was fourth-lowest in the nation in 2017, hampering the state’s efforts in recent years to improve education funding.... Read more»
Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday proposed a fiscal year 2020 budget that would double the rainy day fund to $1 billion, put aside $165 million to hike teacher salaries and battle drought.... Read more»
How are candidates Doug Ducey and David Garcia proposing to satisfy more than 80 percent of voters who support criminal justice reform? Arizonans want formerly incarcerated people to have easier access to jobs and housing. They want lawmakers to address unjust racial disparities within the system, hold police accountable in cases of misconduct, decriminalize addiction, and send fewer people to prison.... Read more»
Eight weeks after it ordered the #InvestInEd school-funding tax initiative pulled from this fall’s ballot, the Arizona Supreme Court explained its 5-2 ruling Friday in a 23-page opinion that critics blasted as “a very political decision.”... Read more»
I may seem like a broken record dissing our choices on the ballot but across the country I see candidates who know what's what. Can we get a plan here in Arizona? Something more than slogans? In Monday's debate, Ducey promised more of boom-bust, Garcia was a man without a plan, and Torres wouldn't look up... Read more»3
Incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey and Democratic rival David Garcia clashed Monday night over education and border security during a live, televised debate.... Read more»
This week, we heard the news that two citizen initiatives will not be on the state ballot. Whatever your thoughts on these particular proposals, we will be denied a discussion and the right to vote for or against them. ... Read more»
The Arizona Supreme Court has bounced the Invest In Ed initiative off the ballot. The #RedforEd crew needed a red team to vet the proposition's petition language before they gathered signatures.... Read more»
#RedForEd not in their heads: When Arizona teachers walked out of their classrooms to demand more school funding, it forced education into the headlines. Three months later, the issue appears to be a distant memory to many federal candidates.... Read more»
Whatever was lost to the timing of the end of the teacher walkout will be irrelevant to the broader strategy. Arizona no longer ranks 49th in K-12 spending. With all the new money shoveled into K-12, the state ranks 48th.... Read more»
Several Tucson-area school districts will remain closed Thursday, including TUSD and Amphi, as the Arizona Legislature delayed voting on an education funding plan.#RedForEd organizers had called for classes to resume if the budget was approved.... Read more»
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